Tennessee football dropped out of 247Sports' top-25 rankings after spring camp and the spring transfer portal.
The Vols are coming off their best season of the Josh Heupel era when they made their first College Football Playoff appearance since the postseason format was introduced in 2014.
Tennessee has won ten games in two out of the last three seasons, including a ten-win season in 2024, but that isn't good enough for 247Sports to keep the Vols in its top-25 rankings after the 2024 season and 2025 spring camp.
Other teams, such as Oklahoma, Louisville, Texas A&M, BYU, Auburn, and Kansas State, all made the top 25 over the Vols. Those six teams rank 25 through 20 in the post-spring rankings.
The Vols will likely have the opportunity to win at least eight or nine games again this year and be a top-25 team once again under Heupel, but 247Sports seems to doubt Tennessee's potential in 2025.
That is probably a result of Tennessee losing Nico Iamaleava to UCLA in the transfer portal. The former five-star quarterback blew up his relationship with Tennessee after failed NIL negotiations, leaving the Vols without the guy they built the offense around.
Tennessee responded by signing former UCLA and Appalachian State quarterback Joey Aguilar out of the transfer portal. As a result, Aguilar, Jake Merklinger, and George MacIntyre will be involved in a quarterback battle going into the summer.
The Vols still have most of its pieces on both sides of the ball available for the 2025 season, so if Heupel and Tennessee can sort out the quarterback situation, the Vols could shock a lot of people this fall and keep the momentum rolling as Heupel looks to build an SEC and National Champion program.